Monthly Archives: November 2011

Remember that TOP SECRET project I’ve been working on? Well, it’s here.

I have just launched the Get Marni On Ellen Campaign!

HOORAY!

That’s right: the girl who has never campaigned for any position EVER has now set her Santa hat at landing a spot on The Ellen Show!

But I’m going for it, because I have wanted to meet Ellen for quite some time now. Throughout high school (when I was alone…usually) I would have whole imaginary conversations with her.

“Well, Ellen,” I’d say, “I’m okay with being one of the biggest geeks at Ashland High School. Really. Because I went on to do Something of Great Importance which is why you are talking to me now!”

I had no clue what my Something of Great Importance could be . . . but I still had regular interview sessions with her. And putting high school in the past tense (even if it was only in my head) made it easier to handle in the present.

So when I was writing AWKWARD (*Spoiler Alert*) the scene where Ellen interviews Kenzie was one of the easiest to write. I just watched a boatload of her interviews on YouTube for “research” and suddenly I had Ellen in Awkward!

There are a whole host of reasons I wrote her into my novel. And I will admit, the thought that this could be my Something Great of Importance definitely crossed my mind. But the honest to goodness truth, is that for Kenzie to face her fear of the spotlight there had to be someone seriously awesome right next to her onstage. And I knew instinctively that was Ellen.

Ellen always strikes me as sincere. I have never felt like she was capitalizing on a tragedy to score points with the audience. And when she talks to celebrities about the pressures in their lives, she lets them voice the reality of their situations. She doesn’t cut them off or railroad them into a lie or splice scenes so that it looks more controversial. I find all of that truly commendable. If I felt that the news covered subjects with the same amount of heart as Ellen, I’d watch it more often.

And, yes, I think it is absolutely fantastic that she is openly gay. Maybe it’s not fair to idealize celebrity relationships, but when I look at Portia and Ellen it makes me feel good about the direction our world is headed. I was thrilled when they were allowed to get married. I was way more excited about that than I was for William and Kate’s wedding. Because, fair or not, I was able to hug some very important people and say, “See! It is possible to be gay and loved and happy and married and AWESOME!”

I feel very strongly that this is a message that needs to be repeated at a VERY LOUD VOLUME!

Because it’s true.

And I thought that if certain characters were to ever come out of the closet, the Ellen Show is the safest place for that to happen.

So . . . that’s why I wrote her into my novel. And I hope I get the chance to tell her all of this in person.

So I have to keep something underwraps right now. Which is super hard for me because I have a ginormous mouth and have already told a bunch of people about it. But I shouldn’t have done it. So for those of you who know what I’m referring to . . . zip it!

This is an excellent representation of how I feel right now.

But I wanted to give everyone a heads up because I don’t want anyone to miss my Very Exciting Thing once I’m free to talk about it.

It really is this exciting:

And, no, I am not talking about anything school-related. Especially not right now when I have a thesis due this week and all I have to show for it is a four page rough draft. Yeah, classy.

Why, Henry James? WHY!!!!

Anyhoo . . . so my plans for today? I’m going to write my thesis! And work on my TOP SECRET PROJECT. But I’ll be sure to try to schedule in some sleep . . . maybe over Thanksgiving?

This turkey and I have a lot on common. Both so scared of upcoming events (Me: thesis. Turkey: dinner) that we are speechless.

But I’ll be sure to keep you all in the loop, just as soon as I get the all clear!

I had an absolutely fantastic birthday! Actually, I got the whole Birthday Celebration kicked off early with a visit from my mom. I showed her around Portland, which translates to the two of us wandering around looking at art and drinking copious amounts of Starbucks. My definition of a perfect day.

My lovely mom. Without her support, I wouldn’t have my writing career. Or, you know…life.

Then on my actual birthday I went out for dinner with some friends, which inevitably led us to Powells. And then when my friend Laura asked me to introduce her to the world of romance novels…well, things got a little crazy.

See, when I’m excited my Italian genes kick in and I can’t stop making sweeping hand gestures. Which is how I nearly smacked my friend Emily in the face.

To be fair: I was telling them about Tessa Dare’s latest, A Night to Surrender, which was unbelievably good. So when I was explaining about the sheep bombing, I might have gotten a bit overenthusiastic.

Fun side-story: I tweeted about how much I loved this book and then Tessa Dare tweeted me back. And I freaked out. I reacted like a twelve year old Justin Bieber fan at a concert. Lots of squealing. And then I stared at my Twitter screen and repeated, “I am not worthy.”

Erm, so I need to work on that. Otherwise when I eventually meet these authors at the RWA conference, it’s just going to be embarrassing.

Anyhow, I had a fantastic night out with my friends and I spent my birthday in a little cocoon of happiness.

So it was hard to go Isaac’s memorial service the next day…but I’m glad that I did. The service was absolutely beautiful. There were chess pieces surrounding the chapel and near the end of the service everyone replaced them with a lit candle. So now I have a pawn dangling off my backpack and the memory of being surrounded by the glow of all those candles.

Best of all, I got a real sense of closure from the service. So it’s pretty much back to life as usual for me. Thank goodness!

Now I can focus on important things…like erm, Twitter?

Sigh. Sadly I think the correct response to that is actually “my Henry James thesis paper.”

Then again, I’m discussing (at length) the phallic imagery in Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady so I don’t think it’s going to be as boring as I once feared. Plus now I can discuss male genitalia in public while pretending to be classy. Of course, I think I lost classy points when I grabbed a friend from class in the cafeteria and began crowing, “It’s a penis! I get it now! IT ALL MAKES SENSE! How did I miss that keys are codes for penises throughout the whole freaking novel?”

I’ll be sure to post my thesis here once it’s finished so I can try to redeem myself with all of you classy people.

Wow, Henry James was way cuter than I expected!

Although, after going to see David Sedaris I’m not so worried about my class-o-meter. I feel like as long as I don’t discuss people pooping in their hands, I’m doing okay. I have to say, I really dislike it when people say the crudest things they can think of for a cheap laugh. I’m generally not laughing if that’s all you’ve got.

I prefer really sophisticated humor, like tripping and food-related accidents.